The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-10-28


dripping with honey. Why pick up the
honey combs that have in them the fiery
bees which viii sting you with an eternal
poison while you taste it? One book may
for you or me decide every thing for this
world or the next. 1t was turning point
with me when in Wynkoop's book store,
| Syracuse, one day I picked up book
called ''The Beauties of Ruskin." It was
only book of extracts, but it was all
pure honey, and l was not satisfied until I
had purchased all bis works, at that time
| expensive beyond an easy capacity 60
| own them, and what a heaven l went
through in reading his "Seven Lamps Of
! Architecture" and his ''Stones of
| Venice it is impossible for me to describe
except by saying that it gave me rap
ture for good books, and an everlasting
disgust for decrepit or immoral books that
will last me while my immortal
soul lasts. All around the
| Church and the world to-
day there are busy hives of intel
ligence occupied by authors and author
esses from whose pens drip distillation
which is the very nectar of Heaven, and
| why will you thrust your rod of inquisi-
! tiveness into the deathful saccharine of
! perditiOn?
Stimulating liquids also come into the
category of temptations delicious, but
deathful. You say: 81 can not bear the
taste of Intoxicating liquor, and how any
man can like it is to me an amazement." "
| Well then, it is no credit to you that you
| do not take it. Do not brag about your
total abstinence, because it is not from
any principle that you reject alcoholism,
| but for the same reason that you reject
| certain styles of food-you simply don't
| like the taste of them. But multitudes Of
| people have a natural fondness for all
| kinds ofintoxicant. They like 1t so much
/ that it makes them smack their lips to
| look at it. They are dyspeptic, and they
| take it to aid digestion, or they are an
| nOyed by insomnia. and they take It to
| produce sleep, or they are troubled, and
| they take it to make them oblivious, or
/ they feel good and the must cele-
| brate their hilarity. They begin with
| mint julep sucked through two straws !on
/ the Long Branch piazza and end in the
! ditch, taking from jug a liquid, half
kerosene and half whisky. They not only
| like it, but it is an all-consuming passion OF
body, mind aud soul, and after awhile
have it they will, though one wine-glass
| of it should cost the temporal and eternal
| destruction of themselves, and all their
| families, and the whole human race. They
would say: 81 am sorry it is going to cost
me, and my family, and all the worlds
population so very much, but here it goes
| to my lips, and now let it roll over my
| psrched tongue and down my heated
| throat, the sweetest, the most inspiring,
the most rapturOus thing that ever thrilled
mortal or immortal"
To cure the habit before it comes to its
| last stages, various plans were tried in
Olden times. This plan was recommended
in the books, When a man wanted to re-
form he put shots or bullets into the cup
or glass of strong drink-one additional
shot or bullet each day, that displaced so
much liquor. Bullet after bullet added
day by day, of course the liquor
| became less and less until the bull
| let's would entirely I'LL UP the glass and
there was no room for the liquid, and by
that timeit was said the inebriate would
be cured. Whether any one ever was
cured in that way, I know not, but by
long experiment it is found that the only
way is TO stop short Off, and when a man
does that he needs God to help him. And
there have been more cases than you can
count when God has so helped the man
that he quit forever, and I could count
score of them here to-day, some of them
pillars in the house of God.
One would suppose that a man would
take warning from some of the ominOus
names given to the intoxicants, and stand
off from the devastating influence. You
have noticed, for instance, that some of
the restaurants are called "The Shades"
typical of the fact that it puts mans rep-
utation in the shade, and his morals in the
shade, and his prosperity in the shade,
and his wife and children in the shade, and
his immortal destiny in the shade.
Now, I find on some of the liquor signs
in all our cities the words "Old Crow"
nightly suggestive of a carcass and the
filthy raven that swoops upon it. "Old
Croww Men and women without num-
bers slain of rum, but unburied, and this
evil is pecking at their glazed eyes, and
pecking at their bIoated cheeks, and peck
ing at their destroyed manhood and wom-
anhood, thrustiug beak and claw into the
mortal remains of what was once glo-
riously alive, but now morally dead. "Old
Crow" But, alas, how many take no
warning. They make me think Of Cesar
on his way to assassination, fearing moth
ing; though his statue in the hall crashed
into fragments at his feet, and a scroll
containing the names of the conspirators
was thrust into his hands, yet walking
right on to meet the dagger that was to
take his life The infatuation of
strong drink is so mighty in many q
man that though his fortunes are crash |
ing, and his health is crashing, and his |
domestic interests are crashing, and we
hand him a long scroll containing the |
names of perils that await him, he goes |
straight on to physical, and mental, and |
moral assassination. In proportion as |
any style Of alcoholism IS pleasant to your |
taste, and stimulating to your nerves, and |
for time delightful to all your physical |
and mental condition, is the peril awful |
Remember Jonathan and the forbidden /
honey IN the woods Of Bethaven.
Furthermore. the gamester's indulgence /
must be put in the list OF temptations de- |
licious but destructive. / have crossed |
the ocean eight times, and always one OF /
the best rooms has, from morning till late /
at night, been given up to gambling prac-
tices. heard of many men who went on 4
board with money enough for a Eu- 1
ropean excursion who landed with |
out money enough to get their bag |
gage up to the hotel or railroad station. /
To many there Is a complete fascination /
in games Of hazard, or the Tisking of money /
on possibilities. n seems as natural for
them to bet as to eat Indeed, the hunger
for food is often overpowered with the
hunger for wagers, as ia the case of Lord /
Sandwich, a persistent gambler, who, not
being willing to leave the dice table long L
enough for the taking Of food, invented q
preparation Of food that he could take
without stopping the game namely, q
slice of beef between two slices OF bread,
which was named after Lord Sandwich. It
is absurd for those OF us who have never
felt the fascination Of the wager to speak
slightingiY Of the temptation. It has slain
a multitude Of intellectual and moral
giants, men and women, stronger than you
]. Down under It's power went glorious
Oliver Goldsmith, and GibbOns the his
torian, and Charles Fox, the statesman,
and ia olden times famous Senators Of the /
United States, no used 70 be regularly 1
at the gambling house ali night ns they /
IN hal Of al ffsrtb bv daWr